Susannah York in “Images” (1972)
You probably have not seen this film, even if you are a Robert Altman fan. It never received a normal commercial release in America. Some time later it was reported that the film’s original negative was burned by Columbia Pictures. Accidentally. Maybe. Director Altman himself expressed great surprise that a print was obtained by the Cleveland Cinematheque for an Altman retrospective in 2001!
Even if you love Altman’s films (I do), you may well hate this film (I do). I found it to be confusing and as dull as dishwater. My colleague, the late Tuna, also hated it and described it as follows:
“Images (1972) was a total mystery to me after watching it. Thank goodness there was a featurette on the DVD with Writer/Director Robert Altman. I learned that we are seeing life through the eyes of a schizophrenic (Susannah York). Nothing we see in the movie can be assumed to be real, but she may be married, writing a children’s book about unicorns, and staying in a vacation home with her husband. When she is not using voice-over to recite the book she is writing, she is having encounters with herself, her French lover who dies in an airplane crash, and other men. This is high on the list of films I will never see again.”